SONET/SDH

SONET/SDH

The high bandwidth of fiber-optic cable is suitable for today's high

data rate technologies (such as video conferencing) and for
carrying large numbers of lower-rate technologies at the same time.

The importance of optical fibers grows in conjunction with the

development of technologies requiring high data rates or wide
bandwidths for transmission.

With their prominence, came a need for standardization.

The ANSI standard is called the Synchronous Optical Network

(SONET).

The ITU-T standard is called the Synchronous Digital are

Hierarchy (SDH).

These two standards are nearly identical.

SONET

SONET is a synchronous network. A single clock is used to.

handle the timing of transmissions and equipment across the entire
network.

Network wide synchronization adds a level of predictability to the

system.

This predictability, coupled with a powerful frame design, enables

individual channels to be multiplexed, thereby improving speed
and reducing cost.

SONET contains recommendations for the standardization of fiber

optic transmission system (FOTS) equipment sold by different
manufacturers.

The SONET physical specifications and frame design include

mechanisms that allow it to carry signals from incompatible
tributary systems (such as DS-1 to DS-3). It is this flexibility that
gives SONET a reputation for universal connectivity.

SONET
SONET encodes bit streams into optical signals propagated over
optical fiber.
SONET defines a technology for carrying many signals of
different capacities through a synchronous, flexible, optical
hierarchy.
A bit-way implementation providing end-to-end transport of bit
streams.
All clocks in the network are locked to a common master clock
so that simple TDM can be used.

Multiplexing done by byte interleaving.

SONET Devices

(a)

STS
PT
E

SONET
Terminal

LTE

Mux

STE

STE

STE

reg

reg

reg

LTE

Mux

Section

Section
STS Line

STS-1 Path
STE: Section Terminating Equipment, e.g. a repeater
LTE: Line Terminating Equipment, e.g. a STS-1 to STS-3 multiplexer
PTE: Path Terminating Equipment, e.g. an STS-1 multiplexer

STS
PT
E

SONET
Terminal

SONET Devices

STS multiplexer/ demultiplexer:

An STS multiplexer/demultiplexer either multiplexes signals

from multiple sources into an STS or demultiplexes an STS
into different destination signals.

Regenerator:

An STS regenerator is a repeater that takes a received optical

signal and regenerates it. Regenerators in this system,
however, add a function to those of physical layer repeaters.
A SONET regenerator replaces some of the existing
overhead information (header information) with new
information. These devices function at the data link layer.

Add/drop multiplexer:

An add/drop multiplexer can add signals corning from

different sources into a given path or remove a desired signal
from a path and redirect it without demultiplexing the entire
signal.

SONET Frame
90 bytes
B
Section
Overhead

87B

3 rows
Information
Payload

Line
Overhead

9 Rows

6 rows

Transport
overhead

125 s

SPE Synchronous Payload Envelope

SONET Frame
A SONET frame can be viewed as a matrix of nine rows of 90 octets
each, for a total of 810 octets (6480 bits).
Some of the octets are used for control; they are not positioned at the
beginning or end of the frame (like a header or trailer).
The first three columns of the frame are used for administration
overhead.
The rest of the frame is called the Synchronous Payload Envelope
(SPE). The SPE contains transmission overhead and user data.

Synchronous Transport
Signals

SONET defines a hierarchy of signaling levels called synchronous

Transport Signals (STS).

Each STS level (STS-1 to STS-192) supports a certain data rate, specified in
megabits per second.

The physical links defined to carry each level of STS are called optical
carriers (OCs).

OC levels describe the conceptual and physical specifications of the links

required to support each level of signaling.

Actual implementation of those specifications is left up to the

manufacturers.

Currently, the most popular implementations are OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, and
OC-48.

Synchronous Transport
Signals
STS-1
STS-1 or OC-1 is the lowest rate service provided by SONET.
STS-1 transmits 8000 frames per second.
Following figure compares the raw, SPE, and user bit rates.
The rates reflect the number of columns available.
For example, the SPE bit rate is less than the raw bit rate due
to the three columns for management.

Synchronous Transport
Signals Comparison
STS

OC

Rate (Mbps)

SPE (Mbps)

User (Mbps)

STS-1

OC-1

51.84

50.12

49.536

STS-3

OC-3

155.52

150.336

148.608

STS-9

OC-9

466.56

451.008

445.824

STS-12

OC-12

622.08

601.344

594.432

STS-18

OC-18

933.12

902.016

891.648

STS-24

OC-24

1244.16

1202.688

1188.864

STS-36

OC-36

1866.23

1804.032

1783.296

STS-48

OC-48

2488.32

2405.376

2377.728

STS-192

OC-192

9953.28

9621.604

9510.912

Synchronous Transport
Signals Comparison

Virtual Tributaries

SONET is designed to carry broadband payloads.

To make SONET backward-compatible with the current hierarchy, its

frame design includes a system of virtual tributaries (VTs).

A virtual tributary is a partial payload that can be inserted into a frame

and combined with other partial payloads to fill out the frame.

Instead of using all 87 payload columns of an SPE frame for data from
one source, we can subdivide the SPE and call each component a VT.

Four types of VTs have been defined to accommodate existing digital

hierarchies.

Notice that the number of columns allowed for each type of VT can be
determined by doubling the type identification number (VT1.5 gets
three columns, VT2 gets four columns, etc.).

Virtual Tributaries
VT1.5
The VT1.5 accommodates the U.S. DS-1 service (1.544 Mbps).
VT2
The VT2 accommodates the European CEPT-1 service (2.048
Mbps).
VT3
The VT3 accommodates the DS-1C service (fractional DS-1, 3.152
Mbps).
VT6
The VT6 accommodates the DS-2 service (6.312 Mbps).

When two or more tributaries are inserted into a single STS-1 frame,
they are interleaved column by column.

SONET provides mechanisms for identifying each VT and separating

them without demultiplexing the entire stream.

Virtual Tributaries

Higher-Rate Services
Lower-rate STSs can be multiplexed to make them
compatible with higher-rate systems.

Figure shows how three STS-1's are multiplexed into

a single STS-3.
To create an STS-12 out of lower-rate services, we
could multiplex either 12 STS-l's or 4 STS-3's.

ATM Cells in an STS-3

Frame

Limitation of SONET
SONET traffic is carried in fixed bandwidth
groups
SONET has no built-in capability of
dynamically shifting bandwidth usage

Next Generation SONET

Next-generation SONET (NGS) is the evolution
and enhancement of existing SONET networks
that sets a new economic level for network
efficiency while increasing broadband service
potential.